History of Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston - GOV.UK GOV.UK Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston Whig and Liberal 1859 to 1865, 1855 to 1858 Born 20 October 1784, Westminster, London Died 18 October 1865, Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire Dates in office 1859 to 1865, 1855 to 1858 Political party Government of India Bill 1858: transferring control of the East India Company to the Crown. Interesting facts Florence Nightingale said of Palmerston after his death; “Though he made a joke when asked to do the right thing he always did it. He was so much more in earnest than he appeared, he did not do himself justice.” “The function of government is to calm, rather than to excite agitation.” Lord Palmerston became enormously popular thanks to his assertive and ‘manly’ foreign policy which proclaimed Britain’s values as a model for the world to follow. He served in government for 46 years.

Although he generally avoided controversial domestic reforms, Palmerston was instrumental in getting Parliament to approve the creation of the Divorce Court in 1857. Before this, people wanting a divorce had had to get a private act of Parliament passed. Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount of Palmerston (1784-1865) Liberal Prime Minister 1855-1858, 1859-1865 - Explore-Parliament.net [ Virtual Tour ] [ Main Topics Index ] A man of the world is not an imaginative animal, and Lord Palmerston was by incurable nature a man of the world: keenly detective in what he could realise by experience - utterly blind, dark and impervious to what he could not so realise. - Walter Bagehot, Biographical Studies, 'Lord Palmerston'. Additional Information on Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount of Palmerston (1784-1865) Liberal Prime Minister 1855-1858, 1859-1865 Henry John Temple was the eldest son of an Irish member of the British peerage, 2nd Viscount Palmerston.

He succeeded his father in 1802 and entered Parliament in 1807 as a member of the Tory party in the Commons (not the Lords because Irish peers were not allowed seats in there). In 1809 Spencer Perceval offered him the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer, however he declined it in favour of 'Secretary for War' as he felt he was more suited to this appointment which left him spare time for his sporting and social interests. In fact he sat for thirteen years before he made his maiden speech! Palmerston was very popular among the British public, and especially with society ladies who nicknamed him 'Cupid', but Queen Victoria hated him. Although he was not particularly ambitious, he did fulfill his political obligations, if only as a duty to his nation. However, it seems he was well suited to his position in the War Office as he stayed there for nineteen years, under five different Prime Ministers. After resigning from Wellington's Cabinet in 1828, Palmerston's political views shifted to the Whig cause - mainly due to their support for Catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform.

He was appointed Foreign Secretary by Earl Grey in 1830, an ideal post for someone who spoke European languages (French, Italian, German). Palmerston believed in securing British power, and to this end threatened any nations who displeased him with the British Fleet - at this point the most powerful navy in the world. Palmerston's aggressive approach towards foreign states brought disapproval from his contemporaries, Peel and Gladstone. Palmerston's main objective was to keep France and Russia in check, in fact one of his most successful diplomatic achievements was to affect the independence of Belgium in order to prevent its annexation with France. From 1834-1841 he collaborated with France, ending the civil wars in Spain and Portugal, and supporting their Queens against rival claimants to the throne. He saved Turkey from Russia in the Greek War of Independence and during the Opium wars with China (1839-1842, 1856-1860) procured Hong Kong for the Empire.

Although his policies seemed aggressive, Palmerston managed to defend them by claiming that wherever a British citizen might be, 'the watchful eye and the strong arm of England will protect him against injustice and wrong'. In 1851 Palmerston overstepped the mark by acknowledging Napoleon III as Emperor of France. Queen Victoria demanded that he be dismissed, and so he was removed from the Foreign Office. In Aberdeen's coalition government Palmerston became Home Secretary, and after Aberdeen's demise he took over as Prime Minister in February 1855, aged 71. He entered his premiership in the midst of the Crimean Crisis and managed to bring the war to a successful conclusion in 1856, signing the Treaty of Paris in the same year. His government was defeated in 1858, but he returned the following year as Britain's first Liberal Prime Minister (as the Whigs were now known). Palmerston remained in office until his death in October 1865 when he died two days before his 81st birthday. QUOTATIONS He is tolerated because he is cheerful and wounds no pride, and because he is old, and excites no envy.

- Lord Acton, Letter to Richard Simpson, 1862. An accidental and fortuitous concurrence of atoms. - Palmerston referring to rumours of an impending coalition with Disraeli.

PRIME MINISTERS OF GREAT BRITAIN 1721-1859 Prime Ministers of Great Britain 1721-1859 PRIME MINISTERS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND THEIR POLITICAL PARTIES 1721-1859 1721-1742 Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington Whig Thomas Pelham-Holles Duke of Newcastle Whig William Cavendish Duke of Devonshire Whig Thomas Pelham-Holles Duke of Newcastle Whig John Stuart, Earl of Bute Tory Charles Watson-Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham Whig William Pitt (the Elder), Earl of Chatham Whig Augustus Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton Whig Charles Watson Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham Whig William Petty-Fitzmaurice, Earl of Shelburne Whig William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, Duke of Portland Coalition William Wyndham Grenville, Lord Grenville Whig William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, Duke of Portland Tory Robert Banks Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool Tory Frederick John Robinson, Viscount Goderich Coalition Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington Tory Edward George Geoffrey

 Smith Stanley, Earl of Derby Conservative George Mamilton-Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen Coalition Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston Liberal Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley, Earl of Derby Conservative Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston (1784-1865) Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston (1784-1865) Marjie Bloy , Ph.

D., Senior Research Fellow, the Victorian Web [ Victorian Web Home —> Political History —> Prime Ministers ] Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston, twice served as Prime Minister: 6 February 1855 to 19 February 1858 and 12 June 1859 to 18 October 1865. The eldest child of Henry Temple and Mary Mee in a family of two boys and three girls was born in Park Street Westminster on 20 October 1784. The family owned estates in County Sligo and County Dublin in Ireland as well as their Hampshire property. Palmerston was educated privately by a series of tutors before attending Harrow between 1795 and 1800. Thereafter he was admitted to Edinburgh University where he studied between 1800 and 1803, moving to St. John's College Cambridge in 1803 where he was awarded his MA in 1806.

When Palmerston's father died in 1802, the young man was left under the guardianship of the Earls of Malmesbury and Chichester until he came of age; on the death of Pitt the Younger in 1806, he stood as the Tory candidate for the Cambridge University by-election and came in third. It was not until his fourth electoral attempt that he was finally returned as an MP, for Newport on the isle of Wight. The seat was the property of Sir Leonard Holmes who made it a condition of the seat that Palmerston should never go there. In 1811 Palmerston finally was returned as MP for Cambridge University. In 1809 the PM, the Duke of Portland resigned and was replaced by Spencer Perceval who offered Palmerston the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer: he refused on the grounds of lack of experience but accepted the post of Secretary at War that did not carry Cabinet position; he held this post right through Lord Liverpool 's ministry until Wellington formed his ministry in 1828 and was the beginning of Palmerston's contact with the army and foreign affairs.

It was well known that Palmerston had affairs with Lady Jersey and Princess Dorothy de Lieven before he began his affair with Lady Cowper in 1810; when her husband died in 1839, the pair finally married. Lady Cowper was the sister of Lord Melbourne , who said that his sister was a 'remarkable woman, a devoted mother, and excellent wife — but not chaste'. Despite the affair with Emily, Palmerston made proposals of marriage to Lady Georgiana Fane, the younger sister of Lady Jersey: his suit was rejected on all three occasions. In 1813 Palmerston spoke in the Commons in favour of Catholic Emancipation , and after the Battle of Waterloo he suggested that any soldier who had fought in the battle should be allowed to count it as two years' service for pay and pensions purposes. This increased the cost of the army at a time when complaints were being made about the lack of economies being made by reducing the army at the end of the French Wars. Palmerston's attitude was that the army had to be kept in a state of readiness because of its now-increased responsibilities in maintaining peace in Europe as well as the British colonies.

On 1 April 1818 Palmerston was shot and wounded by Lieutenant Davis, an ex-officer who had a grievance over his pension: officers were reduced to half-pay unless they were on active service. Palmerston financed Davis' defence out of his own pocket and ensured that the man was well looked-after when he was sent to Bedlam. However, in 1822 Charles Smith was not so fortunate: he was caught poaching on Palmerston's estates and was executed. Palmerston refused to intervene on the grounds that it was not right to use private influence to affect the due process of law. Palmerston was determined to reduce the expenditure of the War Office and produced plans to cut the cost of administration by £18,000; the following year — 1822 — he was offered the post of Governor General of India, which he refused. It was not long afterwards that he began to take a more direct interest in foreign affairs, speaking on the Franco-Spanish problems that had recently arisen.

In August 1827 George Canning promised that Palmerston should have the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer; he refused because he did not want to have to pay the cost of standing for re-election although he did agree to accept the post in the new parliamentary session. However, the king objected to Palmerston's appointment, and Canning offered him the Governorship of Jamaica followed by the Governor General-ship of India, both of which Palmerston refused. After the death of Canning, Palmerston joined Wellington's government but resigned shortly afterwards in the quarrel over the redistribution of seats from disenfranchised rotten boroughs: at that point he left the Tories and joined the Canningites in parliament: they soon joined the Whigs and Palmerston was a Whig for the remainder of his very long parliamentary career. In November 1830 Earl Grey formed his ministry and Palmerston was appointed as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, holding the post until 1841; during this time he acted as chairman at an international conference that debated the Belgian question following the Belgian revolt against Dutch rule.

The problems were solved when Leopold of Saxe-Coburg became the first King of the Belgians tried to intervene in the Italian revolts to stop Austria and France becoming involved in the affairs of Naples and the Papal States (1831) set up the Quadruple Alliance between Britain and France to support the liberal regimes in Spain and Portugal tried to exclude French influence from Iberia on the grounds that this could be against British interests saw the successful conclusion of the Opium Wars with China and insisted on very harsh terms including the legalisation of the opium trade. The Treaty of Nanking was concluded after he left office. Hong Kong was ceded to Britain by this treaty: Palmerston described it as 'a barren island with barely a house upon it'. brought about (for Britain) a successful conclusion to the most recent manifestation of the 'Eastern Question' by concluding the Treaty of London in 1840. His attitude, as expressed in a letter to John Hobhouse, was prophetic: It seems pretty clear that, sooner or later, the Cossack and the Seypoy, the man from the Baltic and he from the British Isles will meet in the centre of Asia.

It should be our business to take care that the meeting should take place as far off from our Indian possessions as may be convenient and advantageous to us. But the meeting will not be avoided by our staying at home to receive the visit. In 1841 Lord Melbourne resigned and was replaced as PM by Sir Robert Peel : for the first time in many years, Palmerston was able to spend time on his favourite occupations of riding, hunting and racing. He continued to attack the government's foreign policy that was in the hands of the Earl of Aberdeen ; in 1844 Palmerston made a three-hour speech denouncing the slave trade , for example. He returned to the Foreign Office in July 1846 following the establishment of Lord John Russell 's ministry. Almost immediately, the Portuguese queen, Maria, asked Palmerston for help in crushing a revolt by liberal elements in the country; the Constitution was restored as the liberals wished but Maria remained in power. During the Irish Famine of the 1840s Palmerston's actions were less than humanitarian towards his tenants. Mr.

Ferrie, a member of the Legislative Council of Canada, reported that the majority of Irish emigrants in 1847 had been sent out by their landlords in a state of 'utter destitution and misery': they had been persuaded to emigrate by promises which had not been fulfilled. A thousand people had been shipped off by Lord Palmerston's agents, who promised them clothes and from £2 to £5 a family on their arrival at Quebec. When they arrived they 'were in a state of fearful destitution'. Ferrie said, 'the last cargo of human beings which was received from Lord Palmerston's estate was by the Lord Ashburton'. Of these emigrants 87 were almost in a state of nudity; the food provided on board the ship was of the worst description; that the ship was excessively overcrowded; that no sufficient vigilance was exercised in this respect by the agents at the outports; and that the whole mortality had been upwards of 25 per cent of the number embarked'. Palmerston's land agent denied the allegations but the estates were depopulated during the Famine years and subsequent 'land improvements' were carried out.

1848 saw a spate of revolutions across Europe and Palmerston was gratified to see many of his old rivals, such as Metternich in Austria, being removed from power. In 1850 he overstepped the bounds of acceptability with the Don Pacifico incident although his attitude towards British subjects was applauded in Britain. It was over this event that he made his ' Civis Romanus Sum ' speech, stating: As the Roman, in days of old, held himself free from indignity when he could say 'Civis Romanus Sum' [I am a Roman citizen], so also a British subject in whatever land he may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye and the strong arm of England will protect him against injustice and wrong. The following year, Russell dismissed Palmerston for recognising Louis Napoleon Bonaparte's regime in France: the political nation was delighted at Palmerston's downfall although his popularity in the country meant that there was widespread outrage at his removal from power.

Palmerston was determined to have his 'tit for tat with little Johnny Russell'; in his anger he went to his home at Broadlands rather than go to Buckingham Palace to return his seals of office to Queen Victoria when required to do so. Two months later, in February 1852, Russell resigned after the defeat of his government at the hands of Palmerston; the Earl of Derby formed a ministry that lasted only until the end of the year. It was replaced by Aberdeen's ministry in which Palmerston was Home Secretary even though his forte was foreign affairs. In his new role, in 1853 he was responsible for a Factory Act a Smoke Abatement Act in London the Penal Servitude Act that stopped transportation to Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) Broadlands, Hampshire: the home of Lord Palmerston. Starting in 1767, the house was virtually rebuilt . Originally it had been part of the property of Romsey Abbey but had been sold off at the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

In March 1854 the Crimean War broke out; it was mis-handled by Aberdeen who was obliged to resign because of his government's shortcomings; the Queen was forced to appoint Palmerston as PM after failing to find anyone who would accept the post. Palmerston agreed to the Committee of Enquiry, precipitating the resignations of Gladstone , Sir James Graham and Sidney Herbert. The war was brought to a conclusion on February 1856 although there was no real settlement of the difficulties that had caused it in the first place. Having terminated one war, Palmerston then supported Bowling, the Governor of Hong Kong, who had ordered the bombardment of Canton in retaliation for the the Chinese authorities' seizure of the Arrow, a British registered ship. Palmerston was censured by parliament for his action; he called a general election and won a huge majority. In 1857 the Indian Mutiny broke out. The Governor General, Lord Canning was accused of being too lenient but he had Palmerston's support: when the mutiny ended, public reaction favoured the leniency. Palmerston followed up these events with the Government of India Bill that transferred power from the East India Company to the British government.

He resigned in February 1858; a year later he was one of the founding members of the Liberal Party that was formed at Willis' Rooms. The 274 members came from a broad spectrum of political opinion and included men such as Palmerston, Russell and John Bright . Shortly afterwards, Queen Victoria invited Palmerston to form another ministry in the absence of alternative candidates for the post. In August 1860, an Anglo-French expedition marched on Peking to force the Emperor to comply with the 1842 Treaty of Nanking: the Summer Palace was burned down during the conflict but Palmerston's attitude was that it would 'bring John Chinaman to his bearings'. During the American Civil War (1861-5) the PM maintained Britain's neutrality but still allowed shipyards to supply vessels to the Confederate states and he was prepared to go to war with America over the Trent incident. He also supported Denmark over ownership of Schleswig-Holstein but did not intervene when Prussia invaded in February 1864.

Palmerston said later that only three people ever understood the Schleswig-Holstein Question: the Prince Consort, who was dead, a clerk at the Foreign Office who went mad, and himself-and he had forgotten. Palmerston always had a reputation as a "ladies' man": indeed, one of his nicknames was 'Lord Cupid'. In 1863, Mrs. O'Kane visited him at the House of Commons and then later claimed that she and Palmerston had committed adultery. Her husband, a radical journalist, promptly cited Palmerston as co-respondent in a divorce case and claimed £20,000 in damages. The case was dismissed but increased Palmerston's popularity: he was 78 years old. In 1865, following a vote of censure, Palmerston called a general election which he won with a convincing majority; however, he did not see the new parliament convened because he died of a fever on 18 October 1865 after catching a chill while out in his carriage. He wanted to be buried at Romsey Abbey but was given a state funeral at Westminster Abbey. Palmerston was 81 years old.

It has been said that his last words were, 'Die, my dear doctor?

That is the last thing I shall do!" Related Materials Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston | prime minister of United Kingdom | Britannica.com Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston prime minister of United Kingdom Written By: Alternative Titles: Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston of Palmerston, Baron Temple of Mount Temple, Pam Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston Prime minister of United Kingdom Also known as Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston of Palmerston, Baron Temple of Mount Temple born John Russell, 1st Earl Russell Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, in full Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston of Palmerston, Baron Temple of Mount Temple, byname Pam (born October 20, 1784, Broadlands, Hampshire, England—died October 18, 1865, Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire ), English Whig- Liberal statesman whose long career, including many years as British foreign secretary (1830–34, 1835–41, 1846–51) and prime minister (185

5–58, 1859–65), made him a symbol of British nationalism .

Early life The christening of Henry John Temple in the “House of Commons church” of St. Margaret, Westminster, was appropriate. His father, a cultured grand seigneur and dilettante politician, failed in his ambition to convert his Irish peerage into a United Kingdom peerage, which would have condemned his son (known as Harry) to a seat in the House of Lords . Instead, with a break of less than a year (in 1835), Harry Temple was to sit in the Commons from 1807 until he died as prime minister on the eve of his 81st birthday. After two years in Italy and Switzerland with his family, young Temple went to Harrow School in May 1795. Its classical curriculum was supplemented by French, Italian, and some German from a tutor brought home from Italy. In November 1800, Temple entered the University of Edinburgh . In April 1802 Temple succeeded to his father’s title and estates as 3rd Viscount Palmerston and to a burden of debt that conspired, along with a sense of public duty, to make him seek public office; the fact was, he could never afford to be out of office long.

He soon began to extend and embellish the house and gardens of Broadlands in Hampshire and, from the mid-1820s, improved his Irish estates in County Sligo. Having survived a youth of ill health, he later displayed a rare stamina, cultivated by regular exercise. Entering St. John’s College , Cambridge, in October 1803, Palmerston was still an undergraduate when he contested the vacancy in the university parliamentary representation resulting from the death of William Pitt in January 1806. He lost then and again in the general election of 1807, but he sat for the University of Cambridge from 1811 to 1831. Political life, 1807–30 Only after being made a junior lord at the admiralty in the Tory government of 1807 did Palmerston become a member of Parliament by a transaction with the patron of the pocket borough of Newport , Isle of Wight . Studious at Cambridge, though no recluse, the young junior minister was thought a bit of a prig.

As he passed into middle age 20 years later, he was thought of politically as a dull dog; for, after refusing the chancellorship of the Exchequer from the prime minister Spencer Perceval in 1809, he took the office of secretary at war. The office was humdrum, and its parliamentary duties were light. He rejected the post office in 1821 because it would have taken him to the House of Lords; and he resisted other offers because they would have taken him to Dublin , the Caribbean , or Calcutta. Palmerston would not forgo the delights of the London society centring on Almack’s social club, the three principal hostesses of which—Lady Jersey, the Princess Lieven, and Lady Cowper (whom he married in 1839 after she was widowed)—were all probably his mistresses; he was known widely as “Lord Cupid.” Because in 1827 the ultra-Tories refused to serve under Canning , Palmerston at last reached the Cabinet.

But the offer of the Exchequer by Canning was withdrawn, and it was as secretary at war that Palmerston sat in the cabinets of George Canning, Viscount Goderich, and the Duke of Wellington. Britannica Stories Scientists Ponder Menopause in Killer Whales Known initially as a Pittite and condemned by Radicals as a follower of Viscount Castlereagh, who was hostile to civil liberties, Palmerston acquiesced in the switch from unmoving resolution to “Liberal Toryism” over which Lord Liverpool presided in 1821–23. But Palmerston was not an intimate of Canning and his follower, the financier and statesman William Huskisson , nor of Sir Robert Peel. Only after Canning’s death, when Palmerston applauded “the great strides which public opinion has made in the last few years,” could he be considered a Canningite. As such, he resigned, reluctantly, when Wellington drove Huskisson out of office in mid-1828; but he never closed the door to overtures from Wellington.

He had owed his return to the Cambridge seat in Parliament in 1826 to the Whigs—he was opposed by two ministerial colleagues hostile (as he was not) to Catholic Emancipation —and of the Whigs who sat with him in the cabinets of Canning and Goderich, he said that he liked them much better than the Tories and agreed with them much more. Palmerston, whose maiden speech in February 1808 had been a defense of a British attack on the Danish fleet to deny it to Napoleon, became in Cabinet entranced with foreign affairs and adopted a position on events in Greece and Portugal in advance of the other Canningites. This he made public in the House on June 1, 1829, when he complained that Wellington had made Britain the keystone of the arch of European absolutism. The circulation of his speech as a pamphlet indicates that Palmerston had decided to play for high political stakes.

By interrogating the Tory government from a Whiggish point of view all through 1830 and by rejoicing at the Paris revolution of that year, he qualified himself to become foreign secretary when Wellington’s resistance to all parliamentary reform led to the creation of a Whig-Canningite coalition under Earl Grey. Views on liberalism and conservatism Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies The Reform Bills of 1831 and 1832 were more considerable than Palmerston liked, and he tried to modify them. Failing, he blamed “the stupid old Tory party” for making them necessary by refusing minor concessions , emphasized the “final” nature of the 1832 Act, and proclaimed his confidence that the landed interest would continue to prevail in politics as he thought it should.

From 1849 to 1865 he came to personify the opposition of the landsmen and many of the middle classes to the enfranchisement of trade unionists and to resist fiscal and legislative assaults on landed property, opining (with regard to Ireland ) that “tenant right was landlord’s wrong.” After one term (1832–35) as member for South Hampshire, he was defeated; and for the rest of his life he represented the Devon market town of Tiverton. A racehorse owner, he combined the conservatism of the countryman with a concern for the expansion of the manufacturer’s foreign markets. His standard text was that reform in 1832 had prevented social revolution and that enlightened legislation thereafter was producing social peace. This made him proud of his country and more than ever inclined to exhort foreign autocrats and bureaucrats to behave like sensible Whigs and Canningites. Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest Palmerston believed that something like the British system of responsible government would be good for all European states and that it would become the norm (as by the first decade of the 20th century it had).

No English ministry was doing its duty, he declared, if inattentive to the interests of constitutional states, which were Britain’s natural allies. He persuaded himself that “the selfish interests and political influence of England were best promoted by the extension of liberty and civilisation,” and even, against the evidence, that constitutional governments would be pro-British. Rebuked for “missionary diplomacy” not intended to lead to action but to inflame international relations, he retorted that ineffective protest was better than tacit acquiescence in wrong and that opinions were mightier than armies. He was charged with “disturbing the peace of Europe by giving encouragement to every revolutionary and anarchical set of men.” Yet his opinions on foreign and domestic matters were all of a piece. He did not want democratic or republican, least of all “Red,” regimes abroad any more than at home. But he regarded the mission of Lord Minto to the Italian courts, on the eve of the revolutions of 1848, as mediatorial, not inflammatory; its object was to show the rulers of Europe that they should have their minor revolutions, lest worse befall them.

Views on nationalism British Culture and Politics Palmerston was a British nationalist; he said that the country had no permanent allies, only permanent interests. The idea that, because he applauded the cause of Liberalism in Europe, he wished to tear up the Treaty of Vienna is nonsense. It was true that he was instrumental in securing confirmation of the independence of Greece and Belgium ; but for Polish, Magyar, and Romanian patriotic causes he lifted not a finger. Palmerston was a philhellene; but by the time he became foreign secretary the only question was whether Greece should be a viable size, wholly independent of Turkey and under the surveillance of Britain, France , and Russia . By 1832 he had achieved this objective. Trending Topics Open Door policy The Belgian revolt of 1830 was a fait accompli, and it had become a British interest to secure Dutch recognition of it without allowing the French to profit by intervening. In this matter, as chairman of the London Conference , Palmerston first showed his diplomatic proficiency.

The outcome was an independent constitutional Belgium, with its neutrality guaranteed by the Five Powers in a famous “scrap of paper.” If he wanted Italian federation or unification , it was from no addiction to the national principle in the abstract, and, if he wanted the Austrians out of Italy, it was not primarily because they were illiberal. His view was that Austria had been put into northern Italy in 1815 to provide a barrier against French aggression. Through mismanagement the Austrians had contrived to raise so much “national hatred” against themselves that their presence in Italy was a danger to the general peace, and it was weakening the Habsburg Empire as well. An able speech in Parliament on July 21, 1849, gave the coldest comfort to the Hungarians, against whose bid for independence Austria had to seek Russian aid. Palmerston said, wholly sincerely, that “the political independence and liberties of Europe are bound up…with the maintenance and integrity of Austria as a great European Power.” Austria was, after all, Britain’s natural ally in the Balkans .

Palmerston’s fears of France and Russia Of the great powers, Palmerston felt that only Russia and France might directly threaten British interests, which he interpreted widely and in which he certainly included all the routes to India and the Far East via the Mediterranean; from concern for India sprang Persian and Afghan wars as well as the Crimean War . It was Palmerston’s objective never to find France and Russia arrayed together against Britain and to practice the technique of “restraint by cooperation.” The France of Louis-Philippe acted for most of the 1830s as Britain’s ally, and Palmerston’s riposte to Metternich’s coalition of the three emperors (of Austria, Prussia , and Russia) at Münchengrätz in 1833 was the 1834 Quadruple Alliance of Britain and France with the constitutional parties in Spain and Portugal. The French, however, became irked at the restraining element in British cooperation and did not see why they should not be as predominant in Spain as the British were in Portugal . Relations, therefore, deteriorated even before there was an open breach in 1839–40 on the Eastern Question (regarding the Ottoman Empire ).

Palmerston’s mobilization of the powers to isolate France and confine Muḥammad ʿAlī Pasha to Egypt gave him (1840) a major diplomatic and parliamentary triumph, achieved amid the doubts, fears, and opposition of Cabinet colleagues. Relations with France were unnecessarily bad when Palmerston left office in 1841. His condemnation of Lord Aberdeen for appeasing France and the United States also contributed to a feeling in the highest Whig circles that he ought not to return to the foreign office; and his refusal to take any other appointment was made the excuse for the prime minister, Lord John Russell , declining to form a government to repeal the Corn Laws in December 1845. In mid-1846, when Russell did form a government, Palmerston became foreign secretary again. After the revolution in 1848, as in 1830, Palmerston was concerned with both protecting the new French regime and deterring it from going to war. He and the Tsar, both standing for the Treaty of Vienna and the balance of power, saluted one another from the twin rocks that stood amid the revolutionary tide.

The popular hero In 1848–49 Palmerston was more intent upon preserving the general peace than upon patronizing Liberalism . In 1849–51, however, he won Radical applause for his denunciations of the cruelty of counterrevolutionaries; for his release of British arms to Sicilian insurgents and his later endorsement of William Ewart Gladstone ’s exposure of King Ferdinand’s treatment of political prisoners; by his evident approval of the hostile reception given to the Austrian general Julius, Freiherr von Haynau , when he visited Britain; by his pressure on the Turks; and by his acceptance, when the defeated Hungarian patriot Lajos Kossuth visited Britain, of addresses describing the rulers of Austria and Russia in Kossuthian terms. This propagandist diplomacy infuriated Prince Albert and embarrassed Cabinet colleagues who, like Queen Victoria , were not kept fully informed. But Palmerston defeated Russell’s intention of removing him from the foreign office by a famous dusk-to-dawn speech on July 8, 1850, in which he defended the British bombardment of Athens and the sabotaging of an agreement reached in London with France and Russia over British subjects’ claims against Greece.

His popularity as “the most English minister who ever governed England ” was such that Russell did not dare dismiss him until December 1851, when Palmerston, to stand well with the ruler of France, approved the coup d’etat by which President Bonaparte overthrew the constitution of the Second Republic. Palmerston at once brought about the fall of the Russell government and might have joined the minority Tory government if the prime minister, Lord Derby , had been willing to abandon his protectionist policies. He served as a reforming home secretary in a Peelite–Whig coalition under Aberdeen, which in 1854 took Britain into the Crimean War against Russia and allied with France in defense of Turkey. His resignation in December 1853, avowedly in opposition to Russell’s reform bill, was ascribed to discontent with an infirm diplomacy. A switch to a more belligerent posture was regarded as the price of his immediate return. Premierships Under Aberdeen, Palmerston was a more loyal and reasonable colleague than was Russell. When Russell resigned as leader of the House of Commons because he would not oppose a motion for inquiry into the misconduct of the Crimean War, Palmerston succeeded him.

With public opinion behind him, Palmerston became prime minister. His attempts to galvanize the war effort and remedy gross defects in many branches of the services were partly nullified by bad appointments at home and in Crimea . He was pressured by the French to make peace (1856) on terms he thought inadequate but which forced Russia to give up its control of the mouth of the Danube. He submitted to restraints by colleagues in quarrels with the United States, but when the Tory opposition, with Peelites and Cobdenites (followers of the free-trade activist Richard Cobden), narrowly defeated him on the China War, Palmerston confidently appealed to the electors against “an insolent barbarian” at Canton violating British persons and property. The considerable majority achieved in the April 1857 election was a personal triumph, but it melted away when he did not make the lion’s roar sufficiently loud in response to French attacks on Britain for harbouring refugees conspiring to murder Napoleon III ; and Palmerston’s government resigned after defeat in the House (February 1858).

After the election of 1859 denied the Tories a majority, Palmerston resumed the premiership with Russell and the Peelite Gladstone, all being pro-Italian against Austria. This triumvirate ruled until Palmerston died. Palmerston knew that he would be able to rely on the Tories for support if Gladstone resigned and linked himself with the Radical John Bright . Although his determination that Britain “should count for something in the transactions of the world” was successfully challenged by Bismarck in the Schleswig-Holstein affair, 1863–64, Palmerston retained great prestige at home; and on the eve of his death he greatly enlarged the Liberal majority in an election on the cry “Leave it to Pam.” It was rightly said, after his death, that “the exceptional sway of Lord Palmerston could not be reproduced by any other statesman, or any combination” and that “the reign of moderate Liberalism” was over. He had been a conservative statesman using radical tools and keeping up a show of liberalism in his foreign policy; after him the defense of the Conservative cause would revert to the Conservative Party .

Lord Palmerston - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) (1784-1865). Except for a few months in 1835, Lord Palmerston was a member of Great Britain’s House of Commons from 1807 until his death on Oct. 18, 1865. He served as foreign secretary three times (1830-34, 1835-41, and 1846-51), and he was prime minister for nearly the whole decade of 1855 to 1865. In his lifetime he was regarded as the embodiment of British nationalism, "the most English minister who ever governed England." Although a liberal member of the Whig party, he would today be regarded as a staunch conservative. He was a defender of the propertied classes, an opponent of voting rights for working people, and a strong advocate of British activism in foreign policy. Article Contributors

Question: Which Viscount was Liberal Prime Minister from 1855 - 1858 and again from 1859 - 1865?
Answer: VISCOUNT PALMERSTON